Friday, November 26, 2010

Thanks so much for all your comments and notes about my previous post. It's funny, I had such a personal response to that passage and my time at the wedding that I didn't realise how much it would impact others, but I'm so glad it did! I need to print those verses out and display them somewhere in our apartment, all motivational saying like.

For those of you in the States, I hope you're enjoying your holiday weekend. I for one am having a hard time hearing all about the amazing food being consumed, I am definitely going to break down and bake a few pies this weekend! Partially to celebrate the holiday weekend and the beginning of the holiday season, but also to say a big thank you to everyone who reads this blog and supports our wee shop, we're having a sale! Etsy now has coupon codes (v. exciting!), so all you need to do is enter 'THANKS' at the checkout to get 15% off your order from now until Monday evening.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, too. We'll be living the craft fair/holiday season hermit life, but I hope to get out and about just a little bit!

Bits and pieces;

- Fieldguided and Sonja Ahlers collaborate on The Mini Meow. Such a perfect pairing of very talented people!
- Eastside Culture Crawl is on this weekend for local folks, I hope to make it out to some of the galleries in our neighbourhood and check out some art.
- Staying independent for the holiday season, I love this postover at Door Sixteen.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

These lovely ladies were the main reason for our trip back east. The one in the sparkles is Richard's sister Kathy, dancing back down the aisle with her new beautiful wife, Beth. Once they set a wedding date, we decided to make the most of our time away by fitting in Montreal and NY, and while Toronto wasn't a real holiday type vacation the chance to spend time with family all in one place before we move was perfect.

The reading for the wedding was from Ecclesiastes, an often despairing book, but completely summed up the magic and celebration of the day. I was also really struck by it, especially with the business of this time of year and being distracted by moving plans.

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes - God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don't skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love Each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange For the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one!

So perfect for the day, and I was so honoured to be there to witness the love, and also bravery in declaring that love, of these two amazing women.

Even though we didn't get to see too much of Toronto, we were lucky enough to have the use of Anabela and Geoff's beautiful apartment while we were there. It was definitely a bummer that they were away in Portland while we were there (although we did run into them at Buffalo airport for a quick hug and chat!), but it was so nice to have somewhere to hide out and relax for a few days while we were away. Plus we were left very exciting thank you presents (more on that later) and got to hang out with their sweet kitties. The time to walk around the neighbourhood, get coffee, lie and read on the couch without a timetable (ok, aside from the wedding itinerary ;)) was such a gift, so thanks for that guys!

Again, more photos here which are admittedly mostly of the cute cats. I couldn't resist!

I also wanted to give you a reminder about our newsletter, in case you want to subscribe. You can do it over there in the sidebar, or click through here for a sign up form. We send them out fairly infrequently, but I can say that one will be coming out later today or tomorrow morning with some Black Friday/Cyber Monday coupons to help with your Christmas shopping!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Sadly this is not a post about the keeping of my actual house, that's beyond a joke at this point, but I do have a couple of things I wanted to fill everyone in on in relation (mostly) to shop news so I thought I would just bundle it all up into one post. Here we go!

Christmas Mailing Dates
If you're wanting to pick up something from the shop for Christmas, please keep in mind the following dates, and also that it is just the two of us working although we try to go as fast as we can.

Canada - Purchase by December 4thUSA - Purchase by December 4thInternational - Purchase by November 26th

We can offer express shipping if you need things to get there a little faster or you've missed the deadlines, just let us know and we'll get you a quote. There's also our Gift Certificates, that we email directly to you or the recipient, which are a really great idea for last minute gifts!

Bliss in a Teacup out and about
I know that I have mentioned the fantastic NZ based online design store Foxes before, and we're really excited to that they are now carrying select Bliss in a Teacup goods! While you're looking around the store, you can pick up a copy of Extra Curricular. Their latest Christmas issue is out, complete with a holiday activity book that includes a recipe from myself and other talented kiwis.

Jessica has asked a few people to contribute holiday sweets recipes that she's baked up and featured on her blog. There are so many delicious looking things! My contribution is here, it's a favourite that I've just realised I will now have to vegan-ise!

On a more local front, we're going to be at the Got Craft? Christmas market this Dec. 5th so please come along and say hello! It's our favourite market to do by far, and there are always lots of amazing wares.

Lastly, things might get a little quiet around here over the next while. The holiday rush is is in full force (thank you!) and there keeps seeming to be more and more things we need to do in preparation for our move home. I still have some travel photos and stories to share with you, and I'll be posting every now and then when I have something to share. I'm actually a little excited at the idea of scaling back and blogging the really good stuff as opposed to feeling like there always needs to be content for contents sake, you know?

Hope you're all well, it is freezing (literally, my balcony is like an ice skating rink!) here, an early winter is well on it's way!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

We caught the train from Montreal to Ottawa early in the morning so we could spend the day there on our way to Toronto. I love train travel, and to coast across Quebec and Ontario at day break on this perfectly frosty morning was magical. The colours and light were incredible.

I don't seem to have any actual Ottawa photos, but I think they might be on one of our films. It was a brief stop but I'm so glad we did it! The weather was beautiful and we got to stop in and visit Victoire Boutique, which was filled with just as manybeautifulthings as I was imaging. We then spent the rest of our day wandering a bit around parliament and visiting the National Gallery of Canada, which was amazing! A definite highlight of our trip, I'm so glad we did it. There was this great Moshe Safdie exhibition on, as well as these giant Carl Beam works that were breathtaking. Of course they also have an amazing Group of Seven/Tom Thomson collection, along with Emily Carr's and a number of international artists. I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Montreal completely stole our hearts. I was expecting to love it, and for it to be different from other Canadian cities I've been to, but I don't think I expected quite how much so! We were lucky enough to stay with Caroline (who you might remember from these photos) and her partner Jeff, who were the most amazing hosts. We're not super touristy tourists, so just wandering through neighbourhoods, stopping at local spots to eat, pretty parks and getting the chance to really spend time with our hosts over beers and poutine was pretty much perfect! I would go back to Montreal in a heartbeat, even though I'm pretty sure I have absolutely no idea how cold it truly gets there, and have been scheming ways to do so ever since we left!

Bagels from St. Viateur (to.die.for.) :: Le Cagibi, a really delicious vegetarian restaurant with great mix-matched furniture and huge helpings of chilli - so perfect for that rainy day :: chocolatin from Kouign Amann, which we discovered by chance after wondering around Mont Royal one day, the pastries were amazing and we managed to find our way back there a couple more times :: the light from Caroline's window dancing on the wall of her beautifully decorated apartment :: Carre St-Louis, a park that was once a reservoir and surrounded by incredible homes. The light was perfect that day. :: beers at Reservoir to escape the cold :: pretty beribboned buildings :: i can't remember the name of this building near the water in Old Montreal, but I loved the crest and the colours :: Old Montreal :: Drawn and Quartely, a book store I could have spent much money in :: pumpkins in Mile End :: tiles on Rue Saint-Denis :: pretty homes.

You can see a few more photos here, if you're not totally saturated in French Canadian goodness, and I also have a couple films to drop off that should make an appearance here soon!

Monday, November 15, 2010

We're back! Four cities in just over two weeks. Much amazing food was eaten, buildings stood in awe of, stores browsed, friends bonded with and determination to go back and visit more when we left each place. We found a photobooth on our last night in New York and I love how happy we both look! It perfectly sums up how great it was to escape real life for a couple weeks. Getting to spend time with Richard and not be constantly talking about moving or making, and getting back to that child like wonder of travelling and visiting new places might just be the highlight of my trip.

I have many, many photos and I'll try to use the rest of this week to spread them out over, maybe just the best ones. Each place was so great, I want to share it all! I initially tried not to look touristy, but by our last day in New York I had just embraced the camera/s as giant necklace look. You can't deny it.

It's now 6.30am and I'm already dressed and ready to go (this is not at all normal), I'm trying to trick my body that it is still on eastern time for as long as possible (dark winter nights are very helpful with this) so that I can be all productive like. We shall see how long it lasts!